Writer in Residence

For one term each academic year, the Department of English welcomes a writer in residence to participate in a range of literary events and to offer advice and mentorship to students involved in creative writing. This program is supported by a Canada Council grant and by Queen's University. The Department is grateful to Carolyn Smart for organizing the writer in residence program, and to Pat Rae and Marta Straznicky, successive Heads of the Department, for their help in establishing it.

Photo: David Seymour

Karen Solie

Born in Moose Jaw, Karen Solie grew up on the family farm in southwest Saskatchewan. Over the years, she has worked as a farm hand, an espresso jerk, a groundskeeper, a newspaper reporter/photographer, an academic research assistant, and an English teacher. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.

Karen Solie's poetry, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in numerous North American journals, including Geist, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Event, Indiana Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Other Voices, and The Capilano Review. She has also had her poetry published in the anthologies Breathing Fire (1995), Hammer and Tongs (1999), and Introductions: Poets Present Poets (2001). One of her short stories was featured in The Journey Prize Anthology 12 (2000). Solie's poem "Prayers for the Sick" won second place in ARC Magazine's 2008 Poem of the Year Contest.
In 2015, she won the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize.

Bibliography

Short Haul Engine (2001) - winner of the 2002 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, shortlisted for the 2002 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award, and the ReLit Award
Modern and Normal (2005) - shortlisted for the 2006 Trillium Book Award for Poetry, longlisted for the 2006 ReLit Award
Pigeon (2009) - winner of the 2010 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, Pat Lowther Award and Trillium Book Award for Poetry
The Living Option (2013)
The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out (2015)